What. The. @%$&?
Oh, where to start? I guess I can't. There are so many things wrong with this movie, on so many levels, you can't even put them into a coherent dialogue. Perhaps just my random comments will suffice:
What the frig was Errol Flynn doing in an operetta? With two lightweight sopranos as leading ladies (OK, one was his wife)? With horrible lighting. Horrible staging. Laughable ensemble/chorus pieces. With ZERO chemistry with leading actress Neagle, but lots with Patrice Wymore - though the plot of the movie called for the opposite.
Errol - 49 years old. Bloated, and looking older. And then they film flashBACK sequences. He still holds true in many ways. He looks great in a tux, or uniform (ridiculous as the faux uniforms are). Truthfully, his best acting is where he, as a character, is supposed to be totally blotto drunk. Those are the only convinving scenes. Probably because he actually was blotto during filming. Anyway, he's believable.
I read one reviewer who said writer Ivor Novello based the character on the Duke of Windsor. Wrong. Michael Romanov perhaps. Either way, nothing could have justified this ridiculous, (where every song sucks), laughable (sudden political reform at the end) musical, poorly directed (staging? sound? music? lighting?) film. Not just a pointless plot. Practically no plot. OMG. Pricelessly horrible. The whole movie is a train wreck. I'm fairly certain that the only reason the Flynn swashbuckler /operetta/dancing/musical/drama/faux period piece has not made most reviewers "10 Worst Movies of All Time" list is that so few people saw it that it escaped such critical scrutiny. Oh, and don't miss the - well, how to put it - horrible, ridiculous, downright scary - dream ballet sequences.
The director - Herbert Wilcox. Horrible director, who took wife Anna Neagle (a major British office draw) down with him with his horrible perspective, use of color, staging, and cinematography. Cheaply, and obviously cheaply made. By this point in his undistinguished career had devoted his career to making movies solely for wife Anna Neagle. For Flynn, Neagle, and Wilcox, this was near the sad end of the road.
Many consider Cuban Rebel Girls as Flynn's worst movie. Frankly, this one gives it a good run for its money. At least with Cuban Rebel Girls, Flynn knew he was making a cheap piece o' crap to earn a few sheckels. This film, conversely, was unplanned and inexplicably horrible. To date, I consider it Errol's worst. Uggghh.
And, no surprise. A huge box office bomb. At a point where Errol needed at least a few bucks rolling in. Bottom line -after this, he was screwed. Sad. Sad. Sad.
No comments:
Post a Comment